More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 047will be available to everyone who
subscribes to the service, The
Coalition is anticipating a lot of new
players to come into the fold, gamers
who have never touched a Gears
game before. The studio is, of course,
also expecting hardcore fans to
turn up, so the developers are trying
accommodate both parties.
There’s an optional Boot Camp,
which runs you through, in a very
unpatronising way, every mechanic
and technique within the game. It’s a
great opportunity for new players to
get a quick handle of the controls and
how the game plays. It’s also good for
existing players who wish to brush
up on their Gears knowledge and
maybe even discover some new and
improved moves and abilities.
Rack ’em up
Then there’s another new addition in
Arcade mode. This team deathmatch
variant is all about getting the first 50
kills to win. You’ll be able to choose
between different characters from
the campaign, including the likes of
Kait, Baird and, of course, Marcus
Fenix. These heroes will act almost
like classes with different loadouts
and perks. Each character also has
a set of unlockable weapons that
are purchased after racking up kills.
This counter is registered as a tally of
skulls on your HUD and doesn’t reset
upon your death. When you have
enough skulls to purchase something,
it might be just what you need to
come out on top.As each character you choose
has a particular set of weapons and
abilities, you’ll soon get familiar
enough with each hero that you’ll be
able to spot them on the battlefield
at a glance. You’ll quickly be able
to figure out what type of opponent
you’re up against and what weapons
they have as soon as your see them,
giving you a potential winning edge
when you start fighting them.
Something we found intriguing
during our hands-on multiplayer
session is that enemies now havehealth bars and numbers pop up
from them when they take damage,
similar to what you would see in RPG
shooters like Destiny. We’re not yet
sure if this feature is made solely for
the multiplayer modes or if it also
carries over to the campaign. Does
this mean that the Gears franchise
is going to incorporate RPG elements
within the game, to shake things up
a bit and inject something new? We
can’t confirm anything yet, but we’d
certainly welcome the change.
There are a handful of franchises
that never fail to get us excited about
their next instalment, and Gears is
one of those series that tops our
list. If The Coalition can walk that
tightrope and balance its third-person
shooter gameplay for newcomers as
well as the hardcore players, then we
could be getting the most robust and
entertaining Gears yet. Q“It’s the newest game
mode, Escape, that has
us most intrigued”
Is The Coalition planning to
shake things up?TAKEN BY
SURPRISEDespite the game’s imminent
release we know very little
about its campaign. The
Coalition is promising the
largest, most diverse Gears
world ever created, and the
environments the studio has
showed off so far seem to back
this claim up. The studio is
playing its cards close to its
chest, though, so are we all in
for a big surprise when Gears 5
launches? It looks like the
franchise could be going in a
different direction tonally, but
has the team shaken up the
gameplay dramatically, too?
We’ll have to wait to find out.έ^ OFFI
CIAL
XBOX^ MAGAZINE
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